Part 24 (1/2)

Twenty-Seven.

PICARD could almost feel the impatience radiating from Kirk as Ensign Raeger guided the Enterprise into the nebula. The Borg were still almost five minutes distant, but Kirk, seated where Counselor Troi normally sat, was leaning forward tensely, gripping the arms of the chair as if he thought he could speed up the s.h.i.+p by sheer force of will.

”All stop,” Picard ordered as the last vestige of the external universe disappeared from the now completely blank viewscreen.

”The nebula is essentially identical to its counterpart in our own timeline, Captain,” Data said. ”Its extremely high levels of ionization severely restrict the range of our sensors as well as the Borg's. In most areas, the range appears to be less than one hundred thousand kilometers. However, because of the size and energy differentials between the Enterprise and the Borg s.h.i.+ps, we will be able to detect approaching cubes at least twenty thousand kilometers before they can detect us.”

Picard nodded tensely as Data switched to a broad-sweep, directional sensor scan, giving them, they hoped, a few additional thousands of kilometers of warning. Once that was done, there was nothing to do but wait and hope that the fragmentary memories left behind by Locutus were reliable and that his own extrapolations from those memories were valid. If not, the nebula they had searched out would be the grave not only of the Enterprise but of the Federation and the Alliance and probably much more.

Ten minutes later, the first cube appeared on the screen, moving toward them through the nebula at the Borg equivalent of minimum impulse. At a word from Picard, Raeger maneuvered the Enterprise laterally, keeping out of the hypothetical range of the Borg sensors. Soon a second cube appeared, its nebula-limited sensor scan overlapping that of the first.

Then a third appeared, and a fourth. The Borg were doing just as the Locutus memories had suggested: using the bulk of the fleet to methodically sweep the entire nebula while a smaller number remained outside, waiting to vaporize the Enterprise the moment it was flushed out, like a rabbit out of a briar patch.

Picard pulled in a breath as Raeger positioned the Enterprise halfway between the projected paths of two of the approaching Borg. ”Now, Mr. La Forge,” he said.

Picard waited, hardly breathing, as Scott's and La Forge's jury-rigged modifications were switched in, routing the outputs of the holodeck computers through a maze of buffers to the circuits that controlled the deflectors.

Abruptly, the viewscreen s.h.i.+mmered and went blank.

An instant later a half dozen warning lights flared. The Enterprise was, according to the sensors, surrounded by an impenetrable cube-shaped sh.e.l.l.

Which was precisely what they had been hoping for.

”Go to visual subsystems,” Picard ordered.

The viewscreen remained blank, but the warning lights went out.

”Computer,” La Forge said, ”show projected positions of approaching vessels.”

The four cubes reappeared, their images blinking to indicate they were not real, merely an indication of where the computer thought the actual objects were.

They waited.

Finally, Data spoke. ”We are almost certainly within the area in which their sensors overlap.”

Picard held his breath for another few seconds, as did almost everyone else on the bridge, until the images of the two nearest Borg cubes drew even with the Enterprise.

”Match their speed and course,” Picard said even though Ensign Raeger was already doing precisely that.

Finally, the nebula began to thin and the blinking images vanished, replaced by real images provided by the visual observation subsystem. A dozen more cubes came into view in rapid succession as the nebula continued to thin. Finally, the stars reappeared.

By now the Borg sensors had almost certainly regained full function.

And directly ahead, well outside the nebula, another Borg cube came into visual range. One of the sentries, waiting to blast the Enterprise when it emerged.

Still holding his breath, Picard waited.

Nothing happened except that the cubes that had just emerged from the nebula turned and reentered at a different angle so they would sweep a different corridor.

Picard resumed normal breathing. Captain Scott's jury-rigging had worked.

And the fragmentary Locutus memories had been right. None of the cubes, not even the ones posted outside the nebula where their sensors were fully effective, had ”noticed” the one additional cube that all their sensors must have detected. Like drones that were not programmed to detect humans inside a Borg s.h.i.+p unless they tripped over them, these s.h.i.+ps were programmed only to detect the Enterprise or other similar s.h.i.+ps. They were not programmed to detect a Borg s.h.i.+p that appeared out of nowhere-unless that s.h.i.+p was on a collision course with one of the others or posed some obvious, programmed-for threat.

”Set a course for the Vortex,” Picard said into the relieved silence, ”impulse power until we're past the sentries.” Standing up abruptly, he looked down at Kirk, still seated in Troi's chair. ”Could I speak with you a moment, Captain? In my ready room?”

Kirk glanced at Data and the viewscreen in front of him. ”Sure, if there's time. This is one deadline I don't dare miss, much as I might like to.”

Annoyed at himself for feeling uncomfortable, Picard watched as Kirk leaned close to the ready room's softly lit aquarium and the fish gliding gracefully back and forth. He had brought Kirk here to- To what? Not apologize, but... make sure that they... understood each other? Kirk, he suspected, would be far better at this, whatever ”this” was. Kirk might be too impulsive for Picard's taste, but the man's obvious skills in dealing with people- ”Its own containment field?” Kirk asked, looking up from the aquarium.

Picard nodded, relieved that the other had spoken first. ”We would've lost it a hundred times over if it didn't have one.”

Kirk grinned. ”So things still get shaken up when something gets through the s.h.i.+elds.” He looked back at the s.h.i.+mmery-finned swimmers. ”They are sort of soothing. I could've used something like that now and then in the old Enterprise. But I can't imagine that you got me in here to show me your fish.”

Picard pulled in a deep breath, a sigh in reverse. ”I just didn't want you to think that, when I first saw you and Captain Scott- ” He paused, sucking in another breath. ”You no doubt sensed occasional...”

”Disapproval?” Kirk asked, smiling.

”That's as good a word as any,” Picard admitted.

Kirk made a sound just short of a chuckle. ”Understandable. Scotty and I had just screwed up an entire quadrant of the galaxy, maybe more.”

”Understandable, perhaps, but what I wanted you to know is, I suspect there was also a touch of envy involved in my reaction to you. Envy for the kind of bond you obviously developed with your crew, something so strong it would lead Captain Scott to do what he did. I didn't realize it at the time, though. Or couldn't admit it to myself. In any event, when I first realized what Captain Scott was attempting, long before I first laid eyes on you, I was thinking things about you that I shouldn't have, and it showed through in my att.i.tude toward you when we did finally meet. I had even found myself wondering how you felt about what Captain Scott had done. Were you appalled? Or gratified? I knew you would never- ”

”To tell the truth, Picard-we are telling the truth, right? To tell the truth, I was-well, gratified isn't quite the right word, but flattered? h.e.l.l yes! A bit appalled, too, of course, knowing that he'd taken that kind of risk-and lost-just to save one person. And don't think I didn't tell him so.”

”But it obviously didn't affect your relations.h.i.+p. Guinan told me what you did down in Ten-Forward, convincing Captain Scott to keep trying.”

Kirk shrugged. ”What can I tell you? We were together a long time. On the Enterprise.” An almost dreamy looked seemed to swoop across Kirk's face like a shadow but was gone before Picard could be sure. ”We were on that s.h.i.+p-those s.h.i.+ps-a long time, went through a lot. It does something to you, the Enterprise. To everyone who serves on it, no matter what incarnation. Look at what Spock did for his first commander, Captain Pike. Risked court-martial and worse. Don't tell me you haven't felt it now and then.”

He had, Picard realized, belatedly remembering the tremendous risks Riker, Data, and Worf had taken to rescue him after he had been a.s.similated by the Borg. But even then, as Locutus was purged from his body and mind, it hadn't been something he could have comfortably put into words, even to himself. And therefore he hadn't. Now, he nodded.

”I have,” he said, resisting the compulsion to qualify his admission with a ”perhaps” or an ”it seemed.”

”In any event,” Picard continued abruptly, ”I wanted you to know that, now, I have only the greatest admiration for you.”

”Likewise, Captain. And under any other circ.u.mstances, I'd say it would be a privilege to work with you again someday.” Kirk shrugged. ”But who knows? No more than we know about the rules of time travel-or about the Vortex, for that matter-maybe we will. Or already have. But whatever happens,” he added with another grin, ”it's always nice to know that you made a difference.”

Picard smiled. ”You certainly did that.”

”And so did you. Or should that be 'so will you'? Don't forget, the Guardian not only wants me in the Vortex. It wants you-or Scotty, or someone on this s.h.i.+p, maybe several someones-not in the Vortex. That has to mean something. Have you asked your friend Guinan about that?”

Picard shook his head. ”I don't think even she knows. Or if she does, she isn't talking.”

”Time, Captain,” Riker's voice came over Picard's combadge.